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CHAPTER VI
OLD PEOPLE ARE MADE TO
GO OUT OPPORTUNELY
When evening came, Jean Valjean went out; Cosette
dressed herself. She arranged her hair in the most becoming
manner, and she put on a dress whose bodice had received
one snip of the scissors too much, and which, through this
slope, permitted a view of the beginning of her throat, and
was, as young girls say, ‘a trifle indecent.’ It was not in the
least indecent, but it was prettier than usual. She made her
toilet thus without knowing why she did so.
Did she mean to go out? No.
Was she expecting a visitor? No.
At dusk, she went down to the garden. Toussaint was busy
in her kitchen, which opened on the back yard.
She began to stroll about under the trees, thrusting aside
the branches from time to time with her hand, because there
were some which hung very low.
In this manner she reached the bench.
The stone was still there.
She sat down, and gently laid her white hand on this stone